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DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

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Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#121

Post by stouset »

godelski wrote: post #117

I have to say I'm pretty upset about this. Not over privacy stuff (I don't trust Apple that much either), but because Apple maps just sucks. Unless things changed within the last 4 months, Apple Maps couldn't accurately navigate me from Custer State Park to Mt. Rushmore (which really isn't far).

Competition is good.

I am happily using Firefox, DuckDuckGo, and Apple Maps instead of their Google equivalents—even though I was perfectly happy with them for the most part—just to do what little I can to ensure continued competition in these spaces.

Yeah, Apple Maps isn’t as good as Google Maps in many regards. But it’s been improving, and it’s honestly not that much worse for the overwhelming majority of my use cases, to the point where I don’t even notice except a handful of times per year. And I can always fall back to the Google product if I absolutely have to.

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#122

Post by lukeqsee »

jethro_tell wrote: post #114
lukeqsee wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They were using an open source map company, not google maps. By that standard, I feel this is probably a privacy regression. I'm not sure this is a fair comparison. Open source is not the same as privacy-friendly. Apple makes privacy a core-tenet of their product. I do not see the same stance from Mapbox.

Apples core tenet is making money, they have recently started making privacy a concern probably because they think that it will make money.

Every corporation’s legal core tenet is increasing shareholder value (i.e., make money). I’m more inclined to go with those who at least claim to protect privacy over those who don’t. :)

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#123

Post by joeblau »

cygned wrote: post #50

When DuckDuckGo is set to a dark theme, the map is also in dark mode! To me, that is an incredible valuable feature. Edit: which is a fallback to Mapbox, no Apple Maps feature.

That's interesting because Apple Maps supports dark mode on the Mac[1].

[1] - https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/9km62p/apple_maps_tran...

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#124

Post by Kye »

taf2 wrote: post #110
SEJeff wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and from a purely data privacy angle, Apple is legitimately better than Google.

Are they or do you just believe that because of what you think you know about the difference between the two companies?

I'm currently on my first iPhone. They spell out what they do with data in just about every app and setting. There's an almost annoying number of modals related to privacy and general control of data.

Maybe it's all for show, but they seem to take privacy seriously.

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#125

Post by aylmao »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #48
gowld wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DDG's main marketing model is talking about how they believe Google is privacy threat, so they'll highlight that angle in any change.

Or Apple's marketing team lead to a donation to DDG to make it possible

Or a deal. Perhaps DDG will help Apple out as provider of search data of some kind (like WolframAlpha, or Yelp). Not sure what this could be that Apple can't do themselves though.

If Apple wants to focus more on services it makes sense to onboard people into using their APIs and challenging Google on this developer front too.

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#126

Post by kuschku »

aphextron wrote: post #115
grsmto wrote: post #8

I wish they were explaining why they moved away from Mapbox and OSM in general!

>I wish they were explaining why they moved away from Mapbox and OSM in general! Because it sucks. Isn’t that obvious? There’s no point in having a feature that nobody uses. I switched to DDG a few months ago and this has always been the one weakness. This is really good news IMO. Apple maps has come a long long way since launch, and their data is about on par with Google at this point. You can argue all day that of…

In many places (e.g. many parts of Germany) Google and Apple maps are far inferior compared to OSM and Mapbox specifically.

I tried finding an address recently on Google Maps, and just couldn’t find it, only to discover that that street was added 4 years ago, so ofc Google (with data from 2011) didn’t have it. OSM had it.

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#127

Post by foepys »

taf2 wrote: post #110
SEJeff wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and from a purely data privacy angle, Apple is legitimately better than Google.

Are they or do you just believe that because of what you think you know about the difference between the two companies?

Afaik Apple went above and beyond to make sure their original iPhone fingerprint sensor never leaked the fingerprint to any app or even the OS itself. Android always just did whatever with the print.

If that's the same philosophy now, Apple is definitely better than Google in terms of privacy.

Full disclosure: I own an Android device and no Apple product except an iPod from 2009 or so.

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#128

Post by godelski »

elicash wrote: post #118
godelski wrote: post #117

I have to say I'm pretty upset about this. Not over privacy stuff (I don't trust Apple that much either), but because Apple maps just sucks. Unless things changed within the last 4 months, Apple Maps couldn't accurately navigate me from Custer State Park to Mt. Rushmore (which really isn't far).

Have you previously used OpenStreetMap? I'd be interested in hearing from those who have. I can say as a DDG user that presentation-wise I disliked what DDG was using before -- but from a direction-accuracy perspective I simply have no idea and would love to hear from others.

I'll be fair in that I've never used it for navigation. But I have used it for looking up locations of places, and it never seemed bad. But I don't do that very often.

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#129

Post by Freak_NL »

mattlondon wrote: post #38
grsmto wrote: post #8

I wish they were explaining why they moved away from Mapbox and OSM in general!

+1 I dont see why this was needed - it is a regression in terms of usability and performance (loading performance - cant comment on quality of the maps just yet, but I understand from others that the map data is woeful). Really disappointed. I used to recommend DDG to everyone, but this feels like a sell-out - without any justification for why they've done it, my mind just leaps to conclusions about marketing and try…

Definitely a severe regression in the Netherlands. Apple Maps doesn't even show houses, and has only a fraction of the POI's OpenStreetMap has. It doesn't have directions for bicycles either — and it leaves out a bunch of dedicated cycleways in my area.

And the colours! All features seem to bleed into their low-contrast pastel neighbours.

This doesn't feel like a proper match for DuckDuckGo at all.

Re: DuckDuckGo will use Apple Maps

#130

Post by willio58 »

gowld wrote: post #41
mtmail wrote: post #9

Some paint it as if the main reason to switch was privacy ( https://www.imore.com/duckduckgo-switches-apple-maps-because... "DuckDuckGo switches to Apple Maps, because privacy"), but the previous map provider was mapbox (openstreetmap plus commercial sources) and I doubt mapbox collected more data than Apple is now.

DDG's main marketing model is talking about how they believe Google is privacy threat, so they'll highlight that angle in any change.

The best kind of marketing is marketing based on universally known truth.
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